Every sport has a myth. Golf’s most famous? Fire crews battling a forest blaze find a victim wearing a wetsuit, mask, and snorkel. The explanation that makes everyone stop mid-sip: a helicopter, dipping from a golf-course pond, allegedly scooped up a diver hunting lost balls and dumped him with the water. It’s tidy, darkly funny—and almost certainly apocryphal.
Wildland helicopters operate with strict procedures; for all the times this story gets told, no one produces a verifiable case. Still, it survives because it’s perfect folklore: golf balls, a shortcut for easy money, and a punchline only a golfer would write. Call it a cautionary tale: respect bucket ops, and maybe stop diving the water hazards.
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